Northern Proposals (22 page)

I looked over at her and was about to ask her not to do it again when she hit me with three brief shots. Then she grinned and got out of the car, but she got me once more on the way into the restaurant.
I gave her a glare, but she laughed.

"Do you want me to stop?" she asked quietly.

I gave her a pleading look.

"I won't do it in front of anyone else," she said. "And I see you don't want to admit you don't want me to stop."

I glared again. I wasn't sure I should make this so easy for her.

We sat at a table, adjusting the seating so we were sitting at adjacent chairs. I reached under the table and found her hand.
I tried not to think about how quickly she was wrapping me around her finger. And her toys. Instead, I thought about the cabin we were buying.

"I can't believe what we're doing," I told her.

"Scared?"

"No."

Then I took her hand out from under the table and set it down on top of the table, resting between us, my fingers wrapped in hers.

"Are you sure about this?"

"You have better judgment about this," I told her. "If this is a bad idea, I won't argue with you. Marcy was concerned about it."

"She's afraid everyone will know I'm gay."

"Yes. Because she knows there are bigots in the world, and she is afraid for you."

"She's afraid of her own reputation."

I sighed before looking at her hands. "Your judgment here, Jessica."

"I don't like hiding, either."

I smiled.

The waitress came over and didn't even acknowledge our hands. We asked for diet soda and asked her what was good.

* * *

Later, when we were just finishing lunch, Karen stepped into the restaurant. I looked up and saw her. I waved, and she walked over, beaming. I immediately took Jessica's hand again.

Karen's first words were, "Congratulations! Your offer has been accepted with no revisions."

Jessica and I began squealing. We stood up, hugged each other,
then pulled Karen into the hug. Soon the three of us were squealing together.

Our waitress came by. "Sold another house, Karen?"

"The Benson cabin," she said.

"Oh, I loved old lady
Benson," the waitress said. "She used to hold picnics for the young kids, and she helped me learn to read." She turned to us. "You take care of that house."

"We will."

She left us our bill. Jessica handed her a credit card. We turned to Karen. "Is there a banker in town that wants our business?"

"If you don't mind a little nepotism. It's my mother."

We laughed. "So she'll be motivated to make the sale happen. Call her," I said.

"I already did. She's expecting us when your lunch is
done."

We finished paying our bill and walked out, Jessica and I holding hands. "We can ride together or you can follow me," Karen said.

"We can walk. It's two blocks," Jessica said. "And it's a nice day."

"I would rather drive," I said.

"Don't be a pansy, Jade. You need to walk that stiffness off." I gave her a dirty look, but we walked anyway.

We got a block before I asked, "Will your mother mind if we're holding hands?"

"No," she said. "When I said 'no one knows' earlier, that wasn't fully accurate, of course. My mother knows. She loves Lydia and has been telling me for two years to stop screwing around and let her make an honest woman of me."

We got to the bank. Karen held the door for us then introduced us to her mother, Linda. We all went into a conference room. Karen gave her mother a bunch of paperwork then said, "Call me when you're done here."

Linda took all our information and ran a credit and background check in front of us. We were there for an hour. "I am going to submit this to underwriting," she said. "We will order an appraisal. The tax value is greater than what you paid. Underwriting is going to approve this. We're a small bank and we don't allow a backlog, so you will have an answer the day after we get our appraiser out there."

"When will that be?"

"No later than Monday. Perhaps as early as today. "

"Oh, I could grow to love small towns," I said.

She laughed. "June isn't a good fishing month or the answer might have been longer."

"So we can close, when?"

"Late next week, if there aren't any problems. There is no title company in town though. We usually use one in Walker, but we can use one in the cities if you insist."

"Take me," I told her. "Right here on our new bed."

"Our new old bed," she said, sitting on it. "We're replacing this bed with something a little better."

I laughed. "You mean something with more places to tie me."

"Isn't that what I said?"

"Take me, Jessica. Now."

"If you take that tone with me, you know what's going to happen."

"Yes, you'll do things to me that make you want you even more."

She laughed then pulled me into her arms and began kissing me.

She took me. Three times. But she got two orgasms of her own.

Later we sat on our chairs on our deck looking across our lawn at our lake. I turned to her. "Jessica, I love you."

"I love you, Jade."

We held hands, and I brought my chair closer to hers so I could lay my head on her shoulder.

It was late afternoon on the first Friday in July. Our closing had gone extremely quickly, surprisingly so. The daughter in California had paid to fix a few things, but the cabin had been in very good shape. She had even hired a handyman to install the dock in the water for us. We had gotten a good deal, but the daughter was pleased, too.

We weren't quite exactly opposite the lake from Marcy's place, but we could see her dock. I looked over and there was motion.

"Marcy and Jon are up?"

"I didn't expect them this early," she said. "They must have taken the day off work."

We watched as their pontoon boat pulled away from the dock. Then the ski boat did, too. Both boats headed in our direction. When they got closer, we could see Jon and the girls in the pontoon boat, and Marcy was driving the ski boat. They came to an idle off the end of our dock.

"Well?" Jon yelled. "Going to help us dock?"

We got up and ran down. Jon came in first. "You need bumpers," He said. "I brought ours, but you need your own."

The girls started squealing and ran to their aunt, but
then Laura ran to me instead. Soon we each were holding a squirming girl, and Jon was left to tie his boat up. He turned to Marcy, who pulled the motorboat in.

"Both boats?"

"We're leaving the pontoon with you," Jon said. "It's yours now. I have the title with me."

We set the girls down and accepted hugs from Jon. Then Marcy joined us on the dock, and we got hugs from her.

"I want a tour now," Marcy said.

I took her hand and pulled her to shore. "I need to talk to you about the boat."

"No you don't," she said. "Jon and I agreed. It's a gift. You are not buying it. Unless you don't want it."

"Are you kidding? I love that boat!"

"Have you made love on it yet?"

I immediately began blushing.

"Jon and I have, too. He was scandalized. Do not tell his sister. He would be mortified. His parents were staying with us, and we don't get much opportunity with the girls always around, so I told him to take me for a midnight trip. We got out to the middle and did it right out there." She turned around pointed.

I laughed. "That's where we did it," I told her.
"Marcy, we're going to be friends, aren't we?"

By now we were on the deck, and I opened the door for her.

"I do hope so," she said.

Suddenly I realized what Jessica and I had been doing. "Oh shit. Keep the girls outside for a minute."

"Why?"

"We weren't expecting company. And we've already broken in the bed."

She began laughing. "Go take care of it."

I ran to the bedroom, finding all the toys. I couldn't find one. It had fallen under the bed. I stuffed everything away and into the closet, making sure the bag was locked.

When I came back out, Jessica caught my eye and smiled.

After that we gave them the tour. Jon seemed very impressed. Then we told him our plans, and that got him going.

"What do you need?" Marcy said. "It looks well equipped, but there's always something."

"Firewood," I said. "There must be someone in town that can sell us some."

"It's not always dry," Jon said. "We'll give you some, but you'll need to have some delivered. I'll wander around and make a list. Do you have paper?"

"Yes."

Then, with two children in tow, Jon and Jessica started wandering around, Jon making notes.

"We have tea or diet soda," I offered to Marcy.

"A diet soda would be great," she said. I got two from the refrigerator, and we stepped out onto the deck. We sat down together.

"It's a lovely cabin, and I'm glad you're so close," Marcy said.

"We weren't sure you would be."

"I know. Jessica and I don't seem to communicate very well. Everything I say comes out the wrong way. I know it's half my fault. I love my sister-in law, Jade."

"She thinks you're a homophobe."

"She does not."

"She's absolutely convinced of it."

We sat quietly for a while. "If it weren't for all the memories growing up, I might like your cabin more than mine."

"They are both nice."

"Yes, they are." She
turned to face me. "I would like you to come to dinner tonight."

"That would be lovely. Can we bring anything?"

"I will make you a deal," she said, patting my hand.

"All right."

"I am a control freak about meals. If ever I want you to bring something, I will tell you. You don't have to ask."

I laughed. "My mother would berate me endlessly if I didn't ask. I'm not sure I can bring myself to forego asking. Maybe we should bring some wine."

"Actually, normally that would be lovely, but not this time."

"Are you pregnant?"

She laughed. "Yes, and it drives me insane if everyone else is drinking and I can't. Please don't tell anyone. I haven't told anyone, not even Jon. It's only three weeks, and I only know because I'm usually regular as clockwork. I'm going to tell Jon tonight. We'll tell Jessica and the girls tomorrow."

"Another girl?"

"I won't know for a while. I hope it's a boy for Jon, but he loves our girls, and if we have a third girl, he'll be very happy."

The girls came racing around the corner of the cabin and ran down to the lake, Jon and Jessica following more slowly.

"Jon is in heaven over this," she said. "I don't let him do much to our cabin. I want it to stay just the way I remembered it from growing up. He's allowed to do maintenance, but I won't let him change anything. He's going to take his handyman urges out on your place. And you wouldn't believe the boat he's planning." She smiled wistfully for a moment before saying, "We'll want to borrow this one occasionally, but he'll finish our new one over the winter."

"Of course."

Shortly after that, we watched Jon give the pad of paper to Jessica, and the two adults and two scampering children headed back towards the cabin.

"We just stopped by briefly," Marcy said, getting up. "We know you have a lot to do. There are several other rooms to break in."

I laughed and blushed.

"It would be nice to spend tomorrow together," she said. "We can picnic on the boat, and we can teach you to ski."

"We can arrange times over dinner. I suspect Jon gave us a shopping list."

"He did," Jessica said, stepping up. She kissed me briefly.

"We're invited to dinner," I told her. "What time, Marcy?"

"Five would be nice," she said. "Dress is exceedingly casual. An after dinner swim would be lovely."

"We'll be there."

* * *

We drove the boat over at five and sat drinking ice tea and talking while Jon grilled dinner. Over dinner, Marcy said, "We have a huge favor to ask."

"You've never asked me for a favor before," Jessica said.

"First I have to ask, how long are you up?"

"We took next week off."

"So did we," Marcy said. "We were wondering if you would like a couple of small house guests for a few of the nights. I know it's a huge imposition, but I would really like it if tonight were one of them."

Jessica stared at her. "You would let me babysit?"

Marcy looked her straight in the eye. "Jessica, the only reason I never let you babysit was because I never trusted your girlfriends around my daughters."